"Matunda yasingekuwa matamu tusingeyala"
Translation:If the fruit were not sweet we would not eat them
19 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Another case of having to resort to copying and pasting the defective English to get through the exercise. Yes, I reported every one of the sentences, several times each.
After six months still not fixed! The more complex the expressions become, the number of errors increases. I take it as an opportunity to repeat the Swahili phrase another time.
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I can't see in the app when you wrote that comment, but I am writing on 14 March 2018 and these errors still aren't fixed. I dutifully report them all too. If only we knew what would help the course developers. (Maybe they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of people reporting the same things. Maybe they are still correcting lesson 4?)
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My swahili is failing me a bit on this lesson. Is the "would not have" really correct in these cases? I would have expected "we would not eat them". What gives it the past meaning in these cases?
Right. I think one formal English translation could be: "Were the fruit not tasty, we would not eat it." But I don't speak that way in casual conversation. Thinking about it kind of gives me a headache, but I think I might say: "If the fruit wasn't tasty, we wouldn't eat it."
The past meaning in the case is just Duolingo's error. I believe you are correct in your expectation.
Can anyone help me here? I do not understand how to interpret the "ya" marker in tusingeyala.
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The 'ya' here is the object marker. So it is the "them (the fruits)" in "we would not have eaten them". Words that start with ma- like matunda (fruits) use the -ya- object marker.
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And if it had been a single piece of fruit, the object marker would be -li-: tusingelila (we would not have eaten it).
I took the time, and for this sequence of tasks I used one and a half hour to get through. The sentences make no sense at all.
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This app is disrespectful to Kiswahili. I see the time and effort that was put into the development of Spanish, French etc but with Kiswahili they don't even care. This is the only language that I have come across in which the turtle button doesnt work. I completed the entire course but I still dont have 1500 word badge because the developers decided to create a 1200 word Kiswahili course. If Babel had a phone app I would switch immediately.
I am thinking that tusingeyala should be tusingeyakula, as I have seen kuja, kunywa, etc. So, have I missed something?
Thank you, Katters, for responding. I do appreciate it! In the tips section, however, the example for "If you came here now, you would see him" is "Ungekuja hapa sasa, ungemwona." Similarly, for "If she were not to drink water, she would not get tired" the first part of the sentence in Swahili is " Asikunywa maji..." So, why not kula in tusingeyala? Sorry to be dense, but I am still confused :(
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These are the sorts of things that I can't always remember the right answer to. But this is what I found in another thread. https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/37158662/KU-and-Monosyllabic-Verbs
"Regarding monosyllabic verbs: A prefix/infix is always needed for it to make sense, i.e. they never stand on their own (e.g. 'tumela' or 'tumenywa' do not exist). This prefix/infix will be one of 2 things; either '-ku-' or an object infix." So when there is no object, a ku- is used. When there is an object present, no ku- is needed. I hope that helps.
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I believe it is correct as tusingeyala. In Swahili, you have to be careful with verbs with 1 syllable. The verb root for kula is just la. The ku- will show up in certain forms like 'ninakula' (i am eating) but is missing in others like 'tule' (let's eat).
Yes! Thanks, Katters. The thread was really helpful, too! This is definitely not the easiest language....